By Mark Rosman
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN – The Township Committee has awarded a three-year contract for solid waste and recyclable materials collection and disposal services to Suburban Disposal Inc., Fairfield. The agreement will become effective April 1.
Earlier in March, two companies submitted bids for the contract and Suburban Disposal was the low bidder at $4,977,000 ($1.66 million per year), according to a resolution the committee passed on March 9. Representatives of Central Jersey Waste, Trenton, submitted a bid of $5,662,263 ($1.88 million per year) for the three-year contract.
Suburban Disposal has been collecting garbage and recyclable materials in Manalapan on an interim basis since Feb. 1, after officials terminated a contract with Future Sanitation and Recycling, Farmingdale.
In December 2013, the committee awarded a five-year contract for garbage and recycling collection to Future Sanitation. The contract was to run from Feb. 1, 2014, through Jan. 31, 2019, according to municipal officials. The contract provided for two garbage collections every week and once-a-week recycling collection. The five-year deal with Future Sanitation was for $6.7 million ($1.34 million annually).
Earlier this year, Manalapan officials said Future Sanitation had not provided the municipality with a performance bond for the new contract year which began on Feb. 1. It was then that officials hired Suburban Disposal on an interim basis and went out to bid for a permanent waste hauler.
The cost of garbage and recycling collection is included in a Manalapan resident’s property taxes. Residents do not have to make their own arrangements to have their garbage and recyclable materials collected.
In other action at the March 9 meeting, the committee passed a resolution to authorize an agreement to lease property at town hall to Monmouth County. Municipal officials said the county will construct and operate a wireless emergency telecommunications tower and related equipment at the municipal complex, Route 522 and Taylors Mills Road.
The county will pay for the construction and operation of the telecommunications tower, but will not pay Manalapan for the use of the land. The plan for the tower was reviewed by the Planning Board and approved on Feb. 25, according to municipal officials, who said it is hoped the project will be completed in the next several months.
In the resolution authorizing the lease with the county, committee members said, “the new equipment will expand and improve both the county and the township’s emergency communications coverage within the township” and said that “it would be in the best interest of the township to enter into (the) lease agreement with the county.”